Perspectives on the beautiful game of soccer; fueled by enormous amounts of coffee

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Landon's Final Words, Part II

Other names on list that were surprising?

There’s a lot of arguments that you can make for everybody. Decisions are tough. It’s a good thing that we have tough decisions to make. In past World Cups, you probably knew the 10 to 15 guys who were the best players and the other ones weren’t up to snuff, but now we have a good group of many, many players who are in their own way deserving of being there. So that’s a good sign for US soccer.

Mystified?

I’m disappointed. I’m sad. I’m human and I wanted to go. I really wanted to go. I’m at peace with it. I respect the decision. I just feel in my heart that I deserve to be there and that’s the pill that’s hard to swallow.

Random Becks question

Beckham’s going to the World Cup? There’s a lot of discrepancies between me and Beckham. I don’t know. I can’t speak to that.

Sabbatical affected choice - if you had it over?

I would absolutely do the same thing. My performances and my stats and the way I played since my sabbatical speak for themselves. I actually think I’ve been a much better player since I came back.

Motivation for MLS season?

I’ve never been a guy who has been motivated by the negative. I don’t operate that way. Some people do, but that’s not my way of doing things. I’m excited to be back here. I certainly didn’t want to be here under these circumstances or this soon, but I love these guys. These are my teammates, this is my home. I will not let this affect me going forward.

What do you say to fans?

The amount of support I’ve had has been - overwhelming is the best word I can use. The responses and the messages that I’ve had from fans, from friends, from family, from my teammates in camp, from the staff at camp, from my teammates here and coaching staff. It’s really been pretty amazing. Someone said to me, and I think its true - a lot of times, you don’t hear those messages unless you’re unfortunately dead, at a funeral. So some of these things I heard were really uplifting and sort of validates the way I feel about myself as a player and a person and I really appreciate all the support I’ve had from everyone.

Why is there a personal edge?

All of this is personal. We’re human being, so we feel disappointed. We work so hard for these moments. I’ve been very fortunate in my life and career to be mostly on the positive side of these decisions. At the end of the day, we’re players and coaches make decisions and you have to live with that and respect that. Do we agree with it always? No. That’s the part that’s been hard for me. I firmly believe that not only should I be going, but I feel like really deserved it, and not from anything I’ve done in the past, but from what I’ve done in the last week and a half.

Do you want to move forward?

I do. I think it was very important for me, from both a personal and professional perspective, to address it and to speak about it, but after today, I won’t be speaking about it any more. I want to focus on the Galaxy and what I need to do here and I really urge people to support the team. Going to the World Cup is an unbelievable experience. There’s a lot of guys who are going for the first time. They need support. There’s a lot of guys who are going for a second or third time, but it’s still such an exciting experience and I don’t want there to be a negative tint to any of this. We’re all professionals. We’re all men and we have to handle things like this. I think its important that we support our team and support our nation. They need us.